


The Witching Moon

by raendown



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Fanart, M/M, Sort Of, they're gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 04:45:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14371182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Jealous of the power held by the Heavenly Bodies, the human Kaguya traps one of them in an attempt to steal that power for herself. She should have known better than to challenge those she views as gods.





	The Witching Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Now includes art at the bottom!

Hashirama’s feet touched down lightly on a patch of dry earth, careful to control his own warmth in this already desolate place. He paid little attention to exactly where on the earth he had arrived other than to note the massive waves of sand all around him; it didn’t matter where he was, Mito would always be able to feel him upon her surface.

As he expected, his wife appeared in a rush of brown and green within the space of a human heartbeat. Lush red leaves from her waning season cascaded from atop the crown on her head in place of hair, evergreen vines and petals from her growing season covering her modesty in place of clothing. She was as beautiful as she had ever been in his eyes but for once Hashirama did not take the time to stop and admire the Body of Earth.

“Something has happened,” he said in place of a greeting. Mito inclined her head.

“I’ve felt the stirring in the spirits as well. Do you have any idea what it is?”

“No.” Hashirama’s mouth twisting with worry. “The stars are gossiping, as they always do, but none of them can give me any solid answers. Typical.”

Mito allowed a smile to flash across her lips like wildfire. “You know better than to listen to the stars.”

“Well there’s little else to listen to up there except the Darkness and you know all he does is sleep, the tired old thing. Ah, my wife, one of these days I shall fall from the sky and spend the rest of eternity resting in your embrace.” Hashirama reached out to caress the skin of her cheek, brown like the loam of her forests. His own skin was an even darker brown, the fire which made up his true form contained underneath as brilliant flickers of red and gold.

“Have you heard from the Moon?”

“Not in years. They’re still sulking about that eclipse. I really didn’t mean to be so close! I can only apologize so many times.”

“I see.” Mito shook her head. “Well I’m sure they felt this stirring as well; very likely we’ll see them soon enough.”

Hashirama tilted his head back to look up in to the vast expanse above them. As the Body of Sun it was his duty to help all life grow but there was something on the wind that told him there were cold and dark times upon them. A shiver passed down his spine in remembrance. The last time he had felt this cold one of his stars had gone supernova.

Although time did not pass quite the same for the celestial Bodies as it did for all the other beings of the universe, it still wasn’t very long even by earth standards before a familiar presence made itself known. Madara had never been very good at being quiet or dim despite his coloring. The Body of New Moon was robed in black, both by his clothing and his endless hair crafted from shadows, with only his face exposed to shine brilliantly with the silver-white of his true form.

Dark eyes hard with anger glared out from beneath the fall of his hair as Madara touched down in a massive spray of sand and both Hashirama and Mito were stunned by his disheveled state.

“He’s gone!” his harsh voice growled. “Taken! Gone and taken – taken from me – he is _mine_!” Acidic rage poured from his aura in concussive blasts, his words halting and repetitive in his all-consuming anger. Earth and Sun blinked in astonishment for his spectacular entrance.

“Who is gone?” Hashirama asked. Madara turned to snarl at him as though something were his fault.

“Tobirama! He was _stolen from me_!”

“HE WHAT!?”

Spouts of fire erupted from fissures in Hashirama’s skin, heat boiling over in his anguished surprise. Madara clenched both fists as his hair whipped and lashed, barely visible against the dark night surrounding them.

“He was tricked by some filthy human with powers that could only have been stolen from another Body. Vile, evil _witch_. I will rend her atom from atom. I will carve out her heart and feed it to the core of a dying star!”

“Who is this human?” Mito asked, poison gathering at the tips of her nails and dripping down in to the sands. 

“Kaguya.” Madara spit her name as though it tasted disgusting on his tongue.

Both the Earth and the Sun narrowed their eyes in understanding. All had heard the prayers of the human Kaguya, forever jealous of their power and seeking to gain their favor, but none of them had bothered to spare her a response in decades; not since it became obvious that she wanted their power for nothing more than selfish gain.

“How could someone like her trick our brother?”

“She disrupted the tides. I know not how but when Tobirama investigated she used a power that should not be hers to bind him and hide him away from me. He is _mine_! And I will have him back if I must boil the oceans to do so!”

“Now, now. There will be no messing with my oceans. Just because they listen to you two more than me does not make them yours. We will help return Tobirama to where he belongs, of course.” When Mito smiled her mouth was full of thick green thorns, sharp and ready to prick and sting. Hashirama spared a moment to swoon at the sight before shaking his head and pressing a fist in to the opposite palm.

“Yes,” he agreed. “Whoever touched my brother will feel my flames.”

Soothed a bit by how similar their reactions were to his own, Madara nodded in satisfaction before lifting both hands to carefully remove one of his dark gloves. Pale white skin, so rarely seen by any but his other half, lit up the night as he held it higher. Small glittering fragments of light lifted from his palm to dance together and form the shape of a women with long hair and a flowing robe. The figure hovered there for a moment before turning and moving as though cackling to herself.

The three of them watched as the imitation Kaguya broke apart only for the glittering splinters to reshape themselves in to an ocean-side cavern, all the trees of the forest surrounding it reduced to little more than stumps. Mito hissed at the sight.

“I know that place,” she growled. “My beautiful forest, burned! And all because that ridiculous Body of Comet sought to stand above his station.” When both of her companions gave her a questioning look, Mito scowled and her autumnal hair rustled in a hot wind. The roots of her feet rumbled beneath the sands. “He may be a lesser Body but Orochimaru has been picking fights with me for millennia. When he could not find a place among you in the Darkness he sought to steal _my_ power instead. Well I am no easy prey and it is time that dying ember was put in his place once and for all.”

A snarl of satisfaction left Madara teeth as he extinguished the light, closed his palm and re-assimilating his own essence. He pulled his glove back on and stated for the other two to follow. Then it was a simple thought to expand and shift, one form flowing naturally in to another until all that was visible of him was a soft moonbeam racing across the surface of the earth.

Sunlight and wind followed after him as he streaked towards the east, drawn by the pull of his other half. Without Tobirama the night sky would never again see more than the light of the stars and his life would be nothing, broken and lonely and forever empty. What was the New Moon without his counterpart, the Full Moon?

More terrible than the thought of his other half kidnapped and being held somewhere out of his reach was the knowledge that the longer they spent apart the weaker they each would grow. Beautiful shining Tobirama, all alone in whatever prison he was trapped within, growing weaker by the hour. And Madara, equally as prone to the pain of their separation, would share that weakness until soon he might lose the strength needed to rescue his own other self. The very idea of it rankled. It encouraged him to travel faster and faster until at last he wove moonbeams into a solid form once again.

The three Bodies gazed upon the cavern containing the witch Kaguya and her new patron, the lesser Body of Comet. Dim light shone from within.

“What are we waiting for?” Madara demanded. Hashirama grinned, the flames underneath his skin swirling faster as excitement mounted within him.

“Nothing!” he declared.

Generally Mito considered herself the voice of reason when it came to their kind but today she did nothing to discourage them as the Sun and the New Moon shared a vicious look before setting off towards the cavern at an implacable pace. Not a single thought was spared for caution or quiet; it simply wasn’t their way. The Bodies were not beings who were meant to suppress themselves, even in battle, and the idea of waiting to make a plan was foreign to those who were unused to any creature challenging their strength.

Within the cavern they found a sight which only intensified the rage inside them all.

Tobirama’s light waned, dim beneath the chains of ice which held him fast to the stone floor. His eyes were closed and his body folded, breathing light, and it was unclear whether he was sleeping or unconscious. It was enough that he was not his usual brilliant self. The bars of his cage showed themselves to be one of the sources of the dim glow, crafted from a familiar cold flame. Atop them lounged the main source: Orochimaru himself.

Skin as white as the burning ice that made up his natural form, Orochimaru eyed them with a hint of a smirk on his strangely serpentine lips. Unlike the rest of the lesser Bodies he had never been content with his place in the universe, forever seeking to gain power above his station, but none of them had ever thought he would go so far as to involve himself in such a direct attack on one of them.

Beside him stood Kaguya. Human-born, her eyes were wide and icy white, an unnatural shade which spoke of an equally unnatural power coursing through her. She too was smirking with much more confidence than any human should feel when faced with the wrath of the Heavenly Bodies.

“And so you have come, as I knew you would. Beg, oh ye gods, and perhaps I will grant mercy to your kin.” Kaguya lifted one hand towards the cage and with a simple gesture the chains tightened around Tobirama’s still form. Madara’s hair bristled, growing and reaching until the ends merged with the shadows of the cavern.

“We do not kneel for your kind,” he said. “Give him back and perhaps _I_ will grant _you_ a swift death.”

“His power belongs to me now but you may have his husk when I am finished with it. The moon shall be mine and I shall rise above the rest of humanity!” Kaguya’s eyes shone with a fervent light that only seemed to amuse the figure behind her more. Orochimaru lounged even more comfortably atop the cage containing his prize, the sickly glow of his skin flickering as he tried to force it brighter.

Snarling like an enraged beast, Hashirama pointed a finger at their lesser cousin. “If you want the light of the Sun so badly, Orochimaru, then you shall have it. _Burn!_ ”

The lesser Body of Comet shrieked in pain and hid his eyes as Hashirama allowed the skin of his human form to split open, spilling his rays inside the cavern. With both hands over his eyes he tumbled down from his perch atop the cage and staggered farther within the caves. Hashirama followed him with murder in his gaze, molten light from the Sun’s core gathering in his palms with which to smite his enemy.

Left suddenly alone, Kaguya peeked out from between her fingers to check that the light was no longer so blinding. Upon discovering that her benefactor had abandoned her she scoffed and set her jaw stubbornly, long hair tossed over one shoulder while she narrowed her eyes at the two remaining Bodies. She seemed far from intimidated by their obvious ire. It seemed that in the rush of her temporary success she had forgotten the fragility of her own mortality. Humans never did seem very aware of how squishy they were.

“You do not fear us,” Mito noted curiously.

“No.”

“You should.” Madara bared his teeth and tilted his head to crack his neck. Kaguya laughed.

“Why should I be afraid when I, too, have the power of a god?” she asked through broken, mocking cackles. “After this cage has done its work then I shall _be_ a god.”

Until then neither Mito nor Madara had realized the coldfire prison had any purpose other than containment. The very idea that even as they spoke it was sapping Tobirama of his power was galling, infuriating, an insult that could not be borne. No words were needed between them to decide that Kaguya had reached her life expectancy. As one they stepped away from each other and moved to hem the witch in from opposite sides of the large stone room.

“The term ‘gods’ is a human misconception,” Mito lectured calmly in a direct contrast to the deep abiding hatred taking root inside her heart. “We are not gods but eternal Bodies who care little for the transient lives of the lesser forms. You mean nothing to us, petty human, and we will take pleasure in showing you the folly of lusting for a power you cannot fathom.”

“I am not _lesser_! You will bow to me as an equal! As your _better_!”

Drunk with the might gifted to her from another, ignorant of how much weaker that might was, Kaguya brought her hands together and held them out in front of her as though to create a shield. Cold flames and chunks of ice formed beneath her feet and grew outwards as she made a pushing motion.

Mito and Madara shared a look across the room, exasperated by her efforts. After a moment of silent communication Mito deferred with an indulgent bowing of her head. Madara cast his eyes back upon his prey and his senses out to the world beyond the cavern, feeling for that which answered his call yet belonged to another, then he gave a feral grin. Kaguya seemed disturbed by his expression, especially since he hadn’t seemed to do anything as far as she could tell. She found out what he had done only a moment later.

Waves of icy water came crashing in through the entrance, the tides that answered when the Moon beckoned. As they rushed towards her Kaguya shrieked and raised one hand frantically. The chunks of ice beneath her feet rose up to form a short wall against which the water broke, spraying and tumbling, but it wasn’t enough. Despite her efforts Kaguya was not powerful enough to raise her wall any higher and thus remnants of the wave came rushing over the top to cascade down upon her head. Being only the equivalent of a few bucketsful, it wasn’t really enough to do anything more than annoy her – and yet even that was a result satisfactory enough to have Madara smiling in delight. It was obvious that Kaguya did not appreciate getting wet and he was more than happy to inconvenience her in any way possible.

Especially since she had fallen hopelessly within his trap without even realizing it.

Once more the waters responded to a mere thought from Madara, the puddles beyond the wall of ice gathering and rushing back to press Kaguya up against it. No matter how she struggled there was little she could do to fight the water pressure, unable to even bring her hands together to gather her borrowed abilities, and the two Bodies watched panic enter her eyes with a great deal of vicious satisfaction as it slowly rose towards her face.

“No!” she screamed. “You can’t do this! I was going to be a god!” Mito calmly rumbled the stones beneath them, breaking a path for herself through the ice without disturbing the trap her companion had set.

“You are what you have always been. Nothing.”

With that she turned away in a blatant dismissal. Kaguya’s final screams trailed off in to a gurgle as Madara bid the water rise, holding it there to allow himself the satisfaction of watching her body’s thrashing gradually go still. As soon as the light had faded from her eyes he gave a derisive snort and released the water, allowing them to gently flow back to the seas where they belonged.

Already forgotten the moment her life was extinguished, Kaguya’s body slumped to the floor like so much garbage as Madara and Mito hurried forward to the cage containing their loved one. Tobirama remained in the same position as he had been before, not having moved an inch, his silver hair glowing only faintly. His moon-white skin, normally almost blinding, was dulled to a light sheen. Just the sight of him would have torn at Madara’s heart even if he hadn’t felt their mutual weakening. He could have drowned Kaguya and this entire cave with barely a thought if they hadn’t been separated for hours already.

Mito bared her teeth and willed the earth around them to reach up from below and down from above at the same time, crushing the cage with expert precision before returning to their natural formations. Immediately Madara reached within and gathering Tobirama in to his arms.

Smiling to himself and whistling a cheery tune, Hashirama reappeared with the casual air of someone who had just performed nothing more momentous that some mundane human task. He glanced around to take stock of the room, his gaze pausing on Kaguya’s sodden body for but a moment, then nodded in approval. Mito gracefully stepped over to plant a soft kiss upon his cheek.

“The Comet?” she asked with only a bit of curiosity. Hashirama shrugged.

“I told him to burn. He did.”

“How polite of him.”

The Body of Sun chuckled before kneeling down to pass a hand over his brother’s hair. Madara only just barely resisted the urge to hiss at him to go away, arms tightening protectively around his other half.

“How is he?”

“So much of his brightness is gone.” Madara’s voice was quiet, a burning anger wrapped in darkness. “We need to return to our home. Thank you both.”

“No thanks are needed,” Mito spoke for both of them. Hashirama agreed with a nod that Madara didn’t see, already focused on leaving this wretched place.

The shadows of his hair wrapped around them both until they had faded in to nothingness and a moment later they were gone, returned to their place deep within the core of the moon which they embodied. Madara laid his other half out on the bed they shared and traced the skin which should have matched his own. Then he settled down to wait.

Days which normally passed like seconds seemed to instead take eons yet still he waited without moving. His beloved’s skin slowly regained its shine and the sense of his presence grew stronger by the hour but it would not be enough until Madara could see him fully recovered. Finally, when nearly an entire earth week had passed, Tobirama stirred at long last. Eyes red like the blood moon blinked open to stare hazily above himself before he turned at a gentle touch against his cheek.

Madara was kissing him before he could speak, wild and uncoordinated as he ever was.

“I had feared that your light would go out forever,” the New Moon whispered. Tobirama smiled.

“Never. What part of ‘eternal’ did you forget?”

“Don’t be sassy with me; I just spent seven days waiting at your side for you to wake.”

“Ah, my hero,” Tobirama teased him with a smirk.

Madara huffed but didn’t bother to fight the hand that was pulling him down for another kiss. “Damn right I’m your hero. You’re the one who had to go and get himself kidnapped. By a mere human! Honestly, with how large our natural form is I wouldn’t think it was so difficult to keep track of you.”

The very next moment he regretted being catty about it so soon. Immediately the Full Moon was flaring brightly with temper, irritated at the implication that he was weak in any way. As they were wont to do, the two partnered Bodies began to bicker and snarl at each other, shouting back and forth as they worked through the events still so fresh in their memories, and although Madara was disappointed to have their loving reunion cut short he couldn’t say that he was entirely unhappy.

Everything was as it should be.

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of wanted this to read like a simplified legend, like the kind you would find in a kids collection of Greek myths or something. Not sure how well it came off but I'm throwing it in all y'all faces anyway.


End file.
